We wanted to put together key information about the bee brick, mainly aimed at our lovely stockists who retail the bricks so that you can have the facts to hand for your customers, bee bricks look beautiful but it's what they can actually do which really makes them popular.
- Solitary bees are responsible for a third of all food we eat because of the vital pollination they carry out.
- Solitary bees don't produce honey or live in hives.
- Because solitary bees have no queen or honey to protect they are non aggressive, so safe around children and pets.
- Solitary bees face decline due to more intensive farming methods, disease, use of neonicotinoids and habitat loss.
- Bee bricks create habitat for solitary bees, inspired by the natural way they nest.
- Bee brick needs to be placed in a warm sunny spot facing south east or south west.
- Bee brick contains cavities in which solitary bees can create their nests.
- One female solitary bee will potentially use around 5-6 cavities, laying 5-7 eggs in each cavity.
- Most common occupants of bee brick will be the red mason bee and the leaf cutter bee,
- You should expect bees to emerge from the nests in early spring - from March onwards.
- Males emerge first and after feeding await the females.
- Females emerge and also feed and then mating takes place, fairly promptly!
- Males die pretty quickly after mating.
- Females begin the nesting process straight away.
- Females will commonly reuse the same nesting site.
- Bee bricks are made from concrete and so can be left out all year round and will not rot or deteriorate, like some wooden nests.
- We recommend that you clean bee brick using a pipe cleaner once the cavities are definitely empty.
- Bee bricks make great gifts, they looks beautiful and do something wonderful for nature and biodiversity.
2 comments
The questions above are my questions. What are the answers ? It will help me make my purchasing choices.
Could you let me know what time of year the cavities are likely to be empty / when they should be cleaned? What happens if they aren’t cleaned yearly (I am a garden designer and planning to put them in peoples gardens so can’t guarantee they will clean them)